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A common issue that arises is which versions of a word are addable to the dictionary, and by extension, the Word compendium. At the heart of this is the distinction of inflection versus derivation. This article covers how to understand the difference between the two, as well as the edge cases where inflections act as derivations, or vice versa.
Distinctions
Inflections are non-dictionary forms of words (i.e. only the uninflected form would be shown in a typical dictionary). Examples of inflection include:
- Tense marking on verbs (where the unmarked form is called the infinitive), e.g. "walked" is an inflection, but "walk" is not.
- Plurals on nouns, e.g. "dogs" is an inflection, but "dog" is not.
- Comparative and superlative forms on adjectives, e.g. cooler / coolest
Derivations are new words created via affixes. Examples of this include:
- Adverbs made from adjectives; Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{". --> Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".
- Agent nouns made from verbs or other nouns (see -er and -ist); Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{". --> Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".; Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{". --> Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{".
However, sometimes the line between inflections and derivations can be blurry. For example, while -ed usually functions as an inflectional suffix for the past tense, it also marks the past participle, which functions as an Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{". suffix. Somewhat similarly, certain derivations will be treated as inflections and automatically added alongside their "base" form in order to maintain consistency. Provided below are the "base" forms and which derivations they automatically allow: